


Run Away!

by Sashataakheru



Series: Spook Me fics [6]
Category: Traveling WIlburys RPF
Genre: Apocalypse, Escape, Guns, M/M, Off-screen Character Death, Running Away, Shock, Survival, Trauma, Zombies, camping out, not a road trip, scavenging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 07:29:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8392630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sashataakheru/pseuds/Sashataakheru
Summary: You need Traveling Wilburys zombie apocafic in your life, you know you do. Jeff didn't, to be fair; he would've been perfectly happy for life to have continued on as normal. Instead, I threw him into the middle of a zombie apocalypse to see how well he'd survive...





	

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has existed in my head as a snippet of fic for far too many years, and after a POV change, and a desire to cross it off my WIP list, it's now done. WOO. Set partway through recording Traveling Wilburys Volume 1, back in 1988. 
> 
> Prompts used: Zombie (creature prompt), [image prompt 1](http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab353/spook_me/Spook%20Me%202016/grave_conditions_by_albertoaprea_zpsye0kz5s9.jpg), [image prompt 2](http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab353/spook_me/Spook%20Me%202016/zombie_apocalypse_12___by_nickmeister_zpsjq4xl9je.jpg)

The morning had not started well. First, the power was out. Storms had blown in overnight and ripped the city apart. At least, that's what Jeff assumed, given the mess he glimpsed from his window. This also meant his breakfast had been ruined, and he'd scavenged cold cereal just to use up the milk before it had a chance to go off. It was nowhere near as enjoyable as he'd have liked. 

That might not have been so bad, but he was meant to be meeting up with the other Wilburys to record some more music. Without power, that would be a wasted day. They wouldn't be able to record anything, not if the power stayed off all day. The delay annoyed him, and spoiled their run of writing new material every day. It was a break in the routine he didn't need, not when they were on a roll. 

He moped around the house, trying to keep himself busy. A tree had fallen across the gate, blocking his way out. The winds were blowing a gale, or he might've tried to walk. It was surprisingly dark outside, he thought, but this didn't twig as unusual. He wasn't sure he'd lived here long enough to know how usual this was. 

At some point, there was a knock on the door, a low, slow thud trying to get his attention. Jeff thought maybe Tom had come to get him anyway so they could keep working, and went to answer it. It wasn't Tom. It was... Actually, Jeff didn't know what it was. It looked vaguely human-shaped, stunk so bad it made him nauseous, moaned at him, and reached its skeletal hands towards him. Jeff ran. 

-

He stopped at the far end of the back yard, catching his breath. He felt ill. The stench of it still clung to his nostrils, and the bony fingers grasping for him refused to be forgotten. He wasn't sure where to go. There might be ... more of them. Out the front. Invading his house. Touching his things. Rage and fear crept over him, leading him to climb the back wall, and try to find another way out. 

The extent of the damage only became obvious then. A few houses were on fire. Trees were down all over the place. Some places had been smashed apart and vandalised. But they were nothing compared to the broken bodies that seemed to litter the streets and gardens, and the blood stains that went with them. Slowly, unwilling to believe what he was seeing, he climbed down, and sat by the wall, breathing hard. He was trapped. 

\- 

He stared at the ground for a long time before the sound of tires squealing and a car pulling up caught his attention. He wasn't sure if it was help or more trouble. He heard the sound of gunfire, and screaming, and decided to hide. Not that there was anywhere safe to hide. The shed had been gutted, and all he had left was a trellis covered with ivy. He hoped it might be enough. 

\- 

"Jeff! You still here? Jeff!" 

He was quite sure he was imagining that voice. It had begun to rain again, and he was soaked through, but he dared not reveal himself. Those things, or the guns, might kill him. Pretending Tom had come to save him wasn't going to help. 

"Jeff? Goddammit, Jeff, where are you? We need to get out of here!" 

Thudding footsteps on wet grass. A very familiar voice that now seemed very real. Perhaps he hadn't imagined it. Taking a chance, Jeff peered around the trellis to see Tom and George running towards him, carrying rifles in their hands. It was not a sight that comforted him.

Jeff hesitated, needing to be sure. "Is it really you? You're not ... whatever those things are?"

Tom finally stood in front of him, grabbed his arm, and turned to run. "No time to explain, Bob's got the van out the front. Come on! We've already lost Roy. I ain't losing you too!" 

Jeff didn't have any capacity to understand what he'd said. He ran, was led, through the house, ignoring the bloody mess of corpses that now littered the ground (when had they come in? how had there been so many of them? how had they not found him?), and through the front yard, where they climbed through a gap in the gate to get out. There was indeed a van out the front, and Jeff was bundled into the back with George while Tom climbed into the front. The door was slammed shut behind him, the engine roared into life, and Jeff wondered what on earth was going on. 

-

Conversation bobbed about him in waves. Jeff wasn't really paying attention. At some point, someone handed him a rifle, and he took it, not sure he even remembered how to use it. Everything smelt like death. 

\- 

The van stopped. George grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet, and they stepped out somewhere else. It seemed to be night time now, proper night, rather than just the darkness from the storms. The air was cool. As he looked around him, he saw a cabin, surrounded by trees. Something in the back of his mind told him this was familiar, but the memories were out of reach. 

"We'll be safe enough here, I reckon, least for a few days. We'll see what we can scavenge before we decide to take off again," Bob said. 

Jeff gazed at the sky. A small pair of arms grasped him, bringing him back to earth. A familiar mop of dark hair pressed close to him, and he knelt down to hug the boy tight. Shock gave way to people, to those he needed to be with, to keep safe, to survive. 

"I'm glad you're alright, Jeff. I didn't want you to be gone too," Dhani murmured, his arms tight around his neck. 

Jeff tried not to cry, to react to the fear in his voice. "It'll be alright, Dhan, I'm alright. I'm here, we're all here now, we're with you. You'll be safe with us."

He wasn't sure he'd convinced himself of this fact, but it seemed better than giving in to despair. He didn't remember seeing Dhani in the van with them, but he hadn't really noticed much anyway. The kid must've been in shock as much as he was. 

-

Jeff made sure he didn't let go of his hand as they made their way towards the cabin. He sat with Dhani while George, Tom, and Bob brought in what seemed to be more crates of supplies than he'd expected; he wasn't sure he'd paid enough attention to have realised they were carrying so much cargo. There were large bottles of drinking water, food, firewood, guns and ammunition, knives, clothes and blankets, matches, and kerosene lamps and torches. Where they'd got them, Jeff didn't know, but he wasn't about to complain about it. No one spoke until they were all sitting around with a mug of hot chocolate each, finally able to breathe, just for a moment. 

"How safe do you think we'll be here, anyway? Surely we'd be better off in the open, where we can see them coming," George said. 

Bob shrugged. "It's far away in the hills. Seems to be less damage here. Maybe they'll get here anyway, but it's better than nothing. It'll be safe for a few days, at least."

"Then what? We keep moving? Where do we get petrol? Food? Shelter? Safety? We'll run out of everything eventually. We don't even know how long those things are going to be around for. They could follow us here. Then what do we do?" George said.

"From what I've seen, we can drive way faster than they can walk, and they do break pretty easily. You never know, people might be mighty willing to help us anyway, if they know who we are. And we got a kid. There might be safety in that, at least," Tom said.

"Or opportunism," Bob added, less than enthusiastically. 

"People can be terrible. They'll hurt you if they really want to. Trust me on that one, yeah?" George said. 

Everyone fell silent at that. Dhani curled up tighter next to Jeff, and Jeff wished he wasn't hearing this. It wasn't giving them any hope. 

-

No one really slept. They lay together in the dark, unable to sleep apart, listening to the night. Jeff thought he might have dozed off at one point, but he wasn't sure. Dhani clutched onto him tightly, whimpering during the brief moments when he did sleep. The last time he felt his eyes close, and his mind trying to drag him into sleep, he was sure it might've been close to dawn, but any memory after that was lost to him. 

\- 

Dhani was still lying beside him when he woke. He didn't feel rested. He felt hungover. Gazing at the ceiling, he heard faint whispering on the other side of the room, but couldn't discern what they were saying. He might've drifted off again. 

-

There was a moment. It was late. Jeff couldn't sleep. He lay beside George, gazing at his still form. Jeff touched his hand, briefly, just for a moment, just needing to touch him, to feel him, to know he was still there, still alive, still warm and breathing.

George slowly looked at him with half-opened eyes, smiled, reached for his hand and squeezed gently. 

"Can't sleep?" George murmured.

Jeff shook his head. "Too wired. Can't stop listening to, y'know. Everything."

George touched his cheek. "Come on, let's go for a walk."

Jeff didn't question it. Carefully, they left Dhani sleeping and crept outside. George pulled Jeff into his arms and kissed him. Jeff hadn't insisted on any intimacy since, well. Since the things came. Since they had run away. Since nothing mattered except survival. But there was George, eager to feel something, to touch him and love him in the dead of night in this place far from home. 

Perhaps they both just needed the stress relief. Jeff wasn't willing to complain. None of it was perfect. There was nothing soft, nothing private, nothing safe, but Jeff hadn't realised he'd needed that connection, to feel that brief moment of pleasure again, until he had George in his arms, brushing his hair out of his eyes to press a kiss to his temple. 

"I love you," George murmured against his neck.

Jeff brushed his words aside. "Nah, y'don't. We can't. Y'know that."

"I ain't doing this alone. I - can't. Not with Dhan. I need you."

"I never thought you'd move on this quickly. You don't even know she's dead. Are you alright?" 

"Gotta do something. You need to be sane for him, for me. I done too much killing."

George sounded weary then, and Jeff held him close, unsure what else to do.

"Stay with me. Please."

"It's alright, Georgie. I ain't going anywhere."

-

A couple of days passed. A storm moved in. Nothing seemed to happen. 

-

He was shook awake, shocked, seeing George looking down at him. Jeff couldn't find his voice.

"Get up, they found us. We need to move," George said. 

There was no time to question anything. George pulled him up, shoved a rifle into his hands, and told him to follow him. Out into the pouring rain, Jeff saw the van, heard the engine, and ran as fast as he could as soon as he smelt death in the air. He didn't stop until he was inside the van, and the door was slammed shut. 

-

Jeff never really remembered the rest of the journey. He'd stayed awake for maybe half an hour before the movement of the van and his exhausted mind gave in to the beckoning embrace of sleep. He held on long enough to eat a sandwich and drink some water, to be aware of Dhani wriggling into his arms, but then he was out of it. 

-

Wherever they were now, it had thick concrete walls. It seemed like a fortress. If not for the huge ceiling height, it might've been a pill box. It was probably an abandoned silo. At least it was warm, and had solid walls. Apparently it had staircases going all the way up to the top, but Jeff wasn't keen to find out. 

Still, they lit a fire, and made some supper, and Jeff finally felt safe, even if he didn't know what was going on. Across the fire, Dhani looked at him with hollow eyes, his father's arms tight around him. 

"He saw Roy being, y'know, when we went to get him. He hasn't been the same since," Tom murmured to him, as if knowing what he was thinking about. 

"Shit," was all Jeff could muster in response. Nothing could make up for that. "So you're the only ones who- I mean, everyone else is still..."

Tom shrugged. "Maybe. Dunno. Hard to tell when they ain't there to tell you, y'know?" There was a pause. He lit a cigarette. "It was only us, anyway, me and George and Dhani, dueling ukeleles til dawn, y'know? Everyone else had gone home. We didn't notice anything til dawn, when Bob turned up, looking for us, said there was danger around. After we didn't find anyone at home, we went to find Roy, fought off some of those things, and, well. Went to find you. All we could do is hope they got out somehow." 

"We drove through a lotta streets piled high with bodies. Whatever it was, it didn't leave many survivors," Bob said.

Jeff couldn't disagree with that. He'd seen enough from his roof. Nothing seemed to survive for very long, but he didn't want to think about that. He hadn't thought of his own family at all since the storms. He hadn't seen his girls for months. He hoped they were still alive somewhere. 

"So what are those things, then? Why are they attacking us?" Jeff asked. 

"Zombies are our best guess, but maybe it's just a plague or something. I mean, zombies ain't real, are they?" Tom said.

No one had any idea. They tossed a few ideas around. Tom valiantly tried to make a song out of it, trying to lift their spirits. Eventually, they all retreated into silence. 

\- 

Jeff spent a long time in that bunker. He wasn't very good at scavenging, nor shooting, so he stayed behind with Dhani while the others went looking for supplies. Much of their time together was spent in silence. Dhani either clung to him, or couldn't bear to be near him. Jeff tried to cheer him up, to at least try to lighten his burden, but it was never going to work. He could see it on his face, that what he was going through needed more than that to heal.

All it did was break Jeff's heart. No kid should have to see that. In the dead of night, when everyone else was asleep, Jeff managed to coax whispers of nightmares out of him, figuring even something he wasn't keeping to himself was better than nothing. They sat just outside the walls, watching the moonlight bounce off the trees, and Dhani wept against his shoulder, unable to vocalise his grief. 

-

"D'you think we'll ever go home again, Jeff?" Dhani murmured one night as they sat together, keeping watch.

"Home? I dunno if there's still any home left to go back to," Jeff said. "I know that doesn't help, though."

"Dad said we might go back to England, that maybe it'll be safe there," Dhani said.

Jeff shrugged. "Well, I guess it might be. I dunno how we'd even get there, though."

"Maybe we'll find something. Maybe if we get to New York, that'll be safe. And we can go from there. There has to be a way out somehow. We can't stay here forever," Dhani said.

"D'you wanna go for a walk, hey, Dhan? Just to get moving a bit?" Jeff said, opting for a distraction. "It's not like we've seen any of those things at all since we got here. It'll be safe."

Dhani thought a moment, then nodded. "Okay, just a little walk. Just to see. We are meant to be watching."

"Atta boy, Dhani. We can't see everything from here, anyway. We wouldn't want them creeping up on us," Jeff said.

Jeff got to his feet, and helped Dhani to stand. It wasn't particularly the best idea Jeff had ever had, and he wasn't actually confident they wouldn't run into any of those things, but it was better than sitting there wallowing in sorrow. Before they left, Jeff grabbed his rifle. Just in case. He was slightly better at shooting than he had been before, but his instincts were still to run, rather than shoot. He hoped he wouldn't have to defend himself that night. 

The air was cool, and their torchlight lit up the dark land around them. The bunker was actually an old storage room attached to a school, situated in a suburban area no one recognised. It had been abandoned when they arrived, but there was plenty to scavenge, and a concrete box was a better place than many others in which to shelter. 

The school grounds were quiet. If it hadn't been like this every night, Jeff might've been concerned. Dhani held his hand tightly, staying close beside him, as they walked carefully around the grounds to see if there was any danger. Nothing was amiss until they got to the gymnasium, which, they discovered, they couldn't actually get to, because a hoard of those ... things ... noticed their torchlight, and slowly turned to face them, groaning desperately. The stench in the air was almost intolerable.

Jeff stopped, pushing Dhani behind him so he didn't have to see them. "Dhani, run. Go back to the bunker. Wake them up and tell them they gotta go. I'll distract 'em."

"But Jeff-"

"Go! Now! Before they see you!" Jeff hissed. 

Dhani didn't need to be told again, and fled. Jeff backed away slowly as they closed in on him. Jeff didn't know his way around very well, but he had a vague idea of where the bunker was, and where he probably shouldn't lead them to. The rifle felt very heavy now, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to use it if they got any closer to him. 

He sized them up as he waited until Dhani was out of sight, giving himself time to think about where he might go. He hadn't counted on being bait, but if Dhani got out, if they all got out, it was better than nothing. The only advantage Jeff felt he had was that they couldn't move as fast as him. They seemed to shuffle slowly, their limbs stiff and occasionally broken. But there were so, so many of them, and if he got lost, or got trapped, it would be all over. Every second he stood there, they crept a little closer. Jeff backed off, step by step, hoping he might survive this.

His instinctive desire to flee made up his mind for him, and he turned and ran, not daring to look back to see how close they were. For one, he could smell them coming, and two, it was dark enough that he'd rather look where he was going first. The pathways all began to look the same as he kept running, stopping for a few seconds to catch his breath before he kept on moving. He didn't know how many more there might be elsewhere in town, but he wasn't keen to find that out, either. 

He found his way to a classroom, situated up a flight of stairs. It wasn't an escape route, he knew that well enough. There was one way in, and one way out, and that way might soon be blocked by, well. Monsters. He just couldn't think of them as zombies. That just seemed too ridiculous. They were... creatures. Ravenous cannibalistic monsters. But not zombies. 

He stood on the balcony, trying to think of a way out. The rooms had already been ransacked. They'd done that after they first arrived. Anything of value, of use to them, had already been taken. What was left was rubbish. He checked how much ammunition he had. However much it was, it wouldn't be enough for the whole group. Suicide, of course, was always a possibility, but did he really want to go out that way? To kill himself before a hoard of things ate him? 

No. He wasn't that desperate. He went into one of the rooms, trying to hide, if he couldn't find anything to escape with. He prayed they could not climb stairs. And that thought gave him an idea. He just needed something that would fall down the stairs and take as many of them out as he could and give him a chance to escape. 

Looking around the room he was in, he didn't find anything he could move himself. There was a storage cupboard against a wall, but it was far too heavy, and it was too far back to get out cleanly. He left the room, and took a moment to see how far they might've come up the stairs. They had followed him, alright, and were slowly clambering up the stairs to find him. Seeing him made them all reach for him, and he ducked into the next room, hoping to find something useful. 

There were chairs in this room, and he grabbed a couple, seeing if they would at least disrupt the flow enough to slow them down. He hurled them at the creatures, and sent some of them falling backwards, but the scope wasn't big enough, and they just climbed all over each other. It wasn't a good result. 

The last classroom yielded more chairs, and nothing else. Perhaps if he was persistent with the chairs, he might get out. He got out as many as he could from the room and set them on the balcony. One by one, he flung them at the creatures, hoping the onslaught might be enough to deter them. 

As he went back in to grab the last of the chairs, he heard a soft cry. It sounded like a child. He stopped and looked around, trying to see where they might be hiding. 

He whispered as loudly as he dared. "Hey, is there someone here? Are you alright? I'm not gonna hurt you." 

He looked around as he waited for a reply, not wanting to scare them. He kept an ear out for the things, trying to gauge how close they really were. The scraping of metal chair legs against the concrete wasn't a good sign. 

"Look, we don't have much time. I can get you to safety, but you've gotta come now before they get here," Jeff whispered, hoping he could, indeed, get them to safety. He didn't know how that might happen, but he would leave that to the universe. 

A cupboard door opened at the back of the room, and a girl clambered out. He didn't recognise her until she straightened, and her face was one of horror and shock. 

"Daddy? Is that you?" 

Jeff scooped her into his arms, not wasting any time. "Yeah, it's me, Steffy, I'm here. You're safe. Where's your mother and sister?" 

The girl stayed silent, and shook her head. 

Jeff grabbed his rifle with a spare hand, and left the room. "Alright, come on, let's get out of here, alright?" 

He turned to the stairs, to the progress of the things, and then the other way, trying to see if there was a way out. The roar of an engine and the screaming of those things being bulldozed out of the way interrupted him. Looking down the stairs, he saw Tom leaning out of the van. 

"Go round! There's some stairs at the other end!" 

Jeff didn't need to be told twice. He followed the sound of the van as it drove around the building to the other side. He looked around, and suddenly saw the other set of stairs, on the far side of the building, and wasted no time in hurrying down them to meet the van as it pulled up beside him. 

"Thanks, man, I didn't expect you to come back for us," Jeff said. 

"You think we'd just leave you here to die? Not on yer life," Tom said. 

"Who's he? Are we safe?" Stephanie ventured, glancing out from behind her father.

"That's Tom. I found Steffy up there, hiding in one of the rooms. No idea what happened to the others, though," Jeff said.

"We'll, at least she's still alive. You got a good dad, Steffy," Tom said. "Now, com on, get in, we gotta get moving."

Jeff didn't hesitate. With Stefanie held tight in his arms, he clambered into the back with George and Dhani, closing the door shut on what lay beyond. George gave him a hug, and Dhani moved next to him, holding him tight. 

"I wouldn't let them leave you there, Jeff. I'm not losing anyone else," Dhani said. 

"You're all mad, but thanks. We nearly didn't make it," Jeff said. "You got a place in mind, then?" 

"There's plenty of places to go. Just gotta keep driving," Tom said. 

"That's the plan? Just keep driving? What if we run out of petrol?" Jeff said.

"I dunno, we find some horses," Tom said with a smile. "Don't look so sad, hey, Jeff? There's a whole journey just waiting for us out there. Try to look excited. You never know, we might get an album out of it, one way or another."

Jeff had to smile, even as he shook his head in disbelief. At least they wouldn't let him wallow in despair. He sat back, Dhani and Stephanie in his arms, as Tom and Bob made up a song as they hit the road, doing their best to make everyone smile.


End file.
